Kashmir is in the grip of the annual chillai kalan, the harshest 40-day stretch of winter. Unlike the previous year, snowfall has been abundant, thereby refurbishing the glaciers and minimising the spectre of water scarcity. But the recent spate of snow also snapped power lines, led to the cancellation of flights and road transport, and heaped misery on local residents and tourists. Hundreds of tourists stranded between Gagangir and Gund villages in Kagan near Sonamarg were, however, accorded typical Kashmiri hospitality by the villagers, who opened their homes and the Jamia Masjid Gund to provide succour.
On Monday, the prime minister, Narendra Modi, was in Sonamarg to inaugurate the strategic 6.4-kilometre-long Z-Morh tunnel to bolster defence accessibility and boost tourism by providing an all-weather link between the tourism hub and Srinagar. Yet, against the backdrop of such efforts, the Srinagar member of Parliament, Aga Ruhullah Mehdi, said last week, “What is happening now, what they call tourism, it is not tourism in my view, it is a cultural invasion — by purpose and by design.” Although it is evident that Kashmir’s economy is primarily dependent on tourism, politicians continue to strike a discordant note and create obstacles to the local people’s sources of income by voicing such sentiments. Not that they can envisage any alternative sources of livelihood.
Instead, the tourism department should try to improve facilities at popular destinations like Gulmarg, whose idyllic snow-clad landscape and cable-car ride draw thousands of tourists round the year. The cable car (gondola) rides are booked online months in advance, heaping woe on those who arrive without a ticket. This is where touts step in and cater to the visitors desperate for a ride for a hefty sum. The fleecing of unsuspecting tourists begins at Tangmarg, nearly 10 km ahead of Gulmarg. All vehicles stop there and a ‘guide’ is foisted on the visitors, along with unwashed overcoats/jackets/snow boots/wellingtons for a price, to be returned on the way back. Tourists already equipped with their own coats and gumboots are persuaded that those will not suffice.
Next comes the pony mafia. Nearly five km before the cable-car station all vehicles have to be parked. The tourist either ascends the remaining distance on foot or, invariably, hires a pony. The only ones spared are those booked into the exorbitantly priced Khyber hotel; their vehicles can drive right up to the cable-car station. The word, ‘Khyber’, works like magic — short of saluting, the securitymen en route are congeniality personified.
Of the 30 lakh tourists who visited Kashmir in 2024, a majority graced Gulmarg and withstood the test of patience that entering the gondola station entails. Despite the diverse timing slots, there are serpentine queues since early morning. The deft guides know how to skip the queues and cajole the ticket checkers to sail into a gondola with their guests. The plight of elderly tourists is especially pitiable given the scanty chairs and deplorable condition of washrooms.
Tourist facilities are minimal at the first level, with the slush of melting snow and a restaurant with non-existent service, while those venturing to the uppermost cable station are vulnerable to the vagaries of nature; they are called back at the first hint of inclement weather. Barely a fortnight ago, a boulder had fallen on a minibus and killed a woman tourist in the Ramban district.
The situation is hardly better in other popular destinations. Sonamarg, which boasts of the vast Thajiwas glacier, is congested, while the picturesque Yusmarg’s restaurants and pony rides are non-functional. Now that the prime minister, who meticulously avoids troubled zones, has visited Kashmir, it is time, perhaps, to make an MP’s “cultural invasion” standpoint economically viable.
